Foxtail!

I grew these seeds, Foxtail Barley ( Hordeum Jubatum) as I had read somewhere that they were like millet and good for feeding to hens. I have a patch on my allotment and two plants in pots at home. I was delighted when the seed heads appeared and today was caught by their beautiful appearance as the sunlight hit them. They look like a shower of water! 
However on looking up information on them today as I was planning to send seeds to a fellow Blipper, I discovered they have a nasty side! They burrow their way into the flesh of dogs and other animals! They have a sharp awn with side barbs to enable it to burrow into the ground - and into any animal that comes into contact with them! They have been found in the nose, ears, eyes, mouths, toes and lungs of dogs and are highly irritant to them! I am so not giving them to the hens nor the  blipper! If I take Oscar to the allotment I'll have to keep him away from them! I can't even find the original article that said they were suitable for hens! Mind you I don't think I have bought the right type to form such seed heads anyway - think I might have bought the ornamental type! I will have to wait and see if seeds form! 
I had to pick up some parcels from the Royal Mail depot today, so then headed for the magical hardware shop Trewartha Gregory and Doidge, what a great Cornish name! It sells everything DIY for house and garden, and has a seperate shop that sells kitchen equipment, ornaments, clothes and wedding dresses!! I picked up a whole range of jam jars and bottles for cordial! Today it was Blackcurrant cordial making and I'm pleased to report no simmering over! I also top and tailed and froze more dessert gooseberries and pinged the redcurrants off their stalks and froze them too! Then a risotto for dinner made with 3 different courgettes from my plot!
When putting  the hens to bed later I discovered the watering can I had left by the electric fence was still there, so obviously no mash made for the hens today. The more I thought about it the more convinced I was that the person who closes on a wed eve and does the open the next morning had not done it. The mash bowl was in the place I left it uncleaned and the poop tray didn't have the usual amount of poop for 8 hens that have been locked in all night. Hmmm, I have suspected this before on odd occasions, maybe it was just another and not a pattern of non closing and opening. With the electric fence they should be safe but if the fence should fail then it only takes the one night for a fox to slaughter them all. Next wed I will lay a trap for her - leaving things on top of the food bins and the watering can in front of the fence again! Sneaky eh?! But I don't want to make accusations without solid evidence, that doesn't include masses of poop in the coop!